


Of Fake Florists and Faberge Fripperies

by TUNiU



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Heist, Parkour, Running away from badguys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-28
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2020-03-20 18:36:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18998218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TUNiU/pseuds/TUNiU
Summary: Sometime in the late 90's, Sully and Nate must retrieve a faberge egg from a wedding. It does not go well.





	Of Fake Florists and Faberge Fripperies

Their cover was wedding florists. It would have worked too, except Nate  got caught red handed. To say the father of the bride was a suspicious fellow was to say water was wet. The man had hired a mercenary group for his daughter's big day. Very bad men with guns who had no problem following a lowly florist and his young apprentice son for every step they took in the church grounds.

Sully and Nate needed the access given by tying roses and bunting all over the location. Somewhere in the Tuscany church hall, four stories tall with ornate carvings and columns and more filigree than a rococo exhibit, lay a box with a beautiful faberge egg that was destined to be a wedding present. It was up to Sully to distract everyone while Nate found the box and extracted the egg for their very well-paying client who didn't really care that he was stealing from a very bad man with machine guns. Sully was charging the client extra for the trouble.

The job was doomed from the start. Sully should have pulled them out when he saw the mercs. But Nate had cajoled and told him it would be a quick in and out. And if they did it right, they could enjoy the wedding and just walk out with no one the wiser. The bride wouldn't check the presents until the reception.

* * *

Sully could only listen through his radio earpiece as Nate chuckled. "Hey fellas, how's it going?" 

Sully kept one eye on the catering van, as he sloppily placed bunting on the stairs leading up to the church doors.

"And what are you doing in here?"

"Putting up flowers," Nate answered. There was a rustling.

"You need to put flowers in the presents?"

Sully dropped his bunting and began to run towards where Nate was inside the church.

"Um, uh...Holy shit what's that?!"  There was a great clatter, like a table being overturned. Then the sound of running. 

"Nate?!" Sully barked over the radio.

Nate ran through the open entrance, leapt over the half flight of stairs and past Sully, who had to dodge out of the way as four burly men gave chase. 

Sully followed them as they all ran past the back of their fake florist van, past the catering crew, past the line of supply vans for the reception tent, and down the church access road.  Nate ran like the hounds of hell were after him. At the first opportunity, he climbed a drainpipe and used rooftops to gain distance on the men who still chased him on foot. 

"Shit!" Suly backtracked to their fake florist van. It was a uniform while panel van with a magnetic logo stuck to the side. He slammed the back door closed and ripped off the logo and left it on the road as he burned rubber leaving the church grounds. 

Sully drove down the tight streets, keeping one eye on the rooftops to best match Nate's progress. Nate leapt from rooftop to rooftop, his satchel flapping behind him. 

* * *

"Fellas let's talk about this!" Nate shouted to the men chasing him. He could feel his legs burning with every leap.

The men answered with a hail of gunfire.

"Oh, come on!" Nate moaned.

Below, he saw Sully in their rented van trying to keep up. It was difficult when Nate's path took him up side alleys and building paths only large enough for air shafts and laundry lines. 

He kept hoping he could find a way to street level that would allow him to meet with the van so Sully could drive them away. Even in these tight streets a van would be faster than running. 

The rusted fire escape grating collapsed beneath his feet and he fell stomach first onto the second story landing. His satchel smacked against his back. A bullet pinged off the metal by his hand. He stumbled and crawled by his feet and hands to the edge and leapt across the street to the fire escape opposite. He landed on flowerpots, dirt exploded on his hands, and he lost a second scrambling for traction on the handrail. Sully and the van weren't on this street, so he climbed up.

Four leaps and landings sounded behind him. Those jackasses were right behind him. Nate needed to stop. He needed just a second. The city spread out around him, the church grounds just a speck in the distance. He caught sight of the van two blocks over and leapt across to the next roof. Exhaustion made his knee buckle and he fumbled the landing. The tar and tile scraped his hands raw and he rolled with his momentum until he was stopped by a brick wall.

"----mit kid, where are you?" Nate's earpiece crackled with a signal now that he was close enough to Sully.

"You see that bell tower," Nate panted. As Nate had progressed further away from the church grounds the rooftops gradually got lower and lower until the bell tower was the tallest structure at three stories.

"I see it," Sully answered. Nate saw the van swerve down a thoroughfare towards his destination.

Nate jumped and hobbled up the bell tower bricks exploiting the tiniest of handholds. The mercenaries stopped in their running to take shots at him forcing him to shuffle sideways to the opposite side of the circular brickwork.

Nate panted hard against the burning in his arms and legs. He looked down. "So I've got an idea," he said, "and you're gonna hate it."

"What are you planning?" 

"I got to get these guys to back off."

Nate forced himself to calm. He was safe for the moment. He had a secure hold on the brick. The guns were no longer shooting at him, at least until those men figured a way in or around the tower. 

The men were after his bag, so he shimmied around the brickwork. He poked his head out and shouted, "Listen guys I think we got off on the wrong foot, how bout I just give you the bag and we call it even."

The man in front held up his hand as a stop signal for his fellows. "Throw us the bag."

"Alright, but I'm trusting you to let me go!" Nate slid his satchel off and swung it like a pendulum at the men waiting. The lead gentlemen holstered his gun and held his hands out.  Nate flung the bag and it landed in the man's hand. 

"Shoot him!"

"Oh come on!" Nate shimmed back around dodging the gunfire.

He steadied his heart rate and breathing as he slowly climbed down.

"So uh, new plan Sully, don't panic but..." Nate let go. He made sure he screamed on the way down.

* * *

Sully automatically braked hard. He slammed forward against the steering wheel from the deceleration. Nate's scream echoed in his head. He creeped the van slowly ahead until he caught sight of the bell tower. Two men were looking down from a window half way up. They pointed and shouted something to their partners standing on the rooftop butting up against the other side of the tower. Sully looked through his side window to where they pointed and saw Nate laying splayed out on the ground. His arms were flung out and one leg bent. 

"Shit," Sully whispered. The kids eyes were half open.

The mercenaries in the bell tower window talked amongst themselves for a moment, then they threw a bit of loose brick at Nate, who didn't flinch when it landed near his right hand. They shrugged and ducked back inside. Sully watched the one man on the rooftop as he dug through Nate's bag. The man nodded satisfied. Eventually the four mercenaries picked their way across the rooftops back towards the church. Nate hadn't moved. Sully couldn't see any blood, but Nate still wasn't moving. 

Nate had screamed.

"Oh, Nathan," he said mournfully. Sully let his head rest against the steering wheel for just one moment before he had to get out and retrieve his kid's body.  

"Are they gone?" Nate whispered.

"Jesus Christ!" Sully slammed his head back in shock. He saw through the window as Nate picked himself off the ground and hobbled.

Sully charged his way out of the van and strode over to Nate. One hand grabbed the kid by the shoulder, the other hand weaved it's way through Nate's hair, feeling for a cracked skull. There was no injury, the kid had faked a fall.

"Ugh, I said 'don't panic'," Nate whined.

"Yes I heard that," Sully croaked out. "I also heard you scream."

"So did they, that was the point."

Sully hugged Nate tight against his chest, his head bent down until he was kissing the kid's hair. He stayed that way for a long moment, just embracing Nate. 

Nate fidgeted away from the unusual affection. Then he gasped as he jarred his leg. 

"You good to walk?" Sully asked. "You're not too big for me to carry you."

"Oh my god, yes I am." Nate moaned and hobbled towards the van. He tried to settle in the passenger seat, but the footwell wasn't enough space to keep his leg stretched. He wiggled his way between the seats until he could stretch out in the back of the van, nestled amongst the flowers and various fripperies required for their florist cover.

"Shame about the egg," Sully said as he pulled away from the bell tower and drove off through the city.

Nate reached down amongst the flower pots nearest the back doors and held up a slightly soiled artifact. "You mean this egg?"

"How the hell did you do that?" Sully asked amazed.

"I stole the egg and a diamond bracelet from the wedding presents. Kept the bracelet in my bag and snuck the egg into the van as I passed it by."

"Damn kid, I missed that drop."

"So did they."

**Author's Note:**

> What even is this? I don't know.


End file.
